2nd February

It was a really good visit to the Meadow today. I went along towards dusk as usual for the gull roost to find the flood water engorged by all the recent rain and the west shore of the floods now a relatively narrow strip of grass next to the river. The birds were certainly loving these conditions with vast numbers in all directions. The BARNACLE GEESE were back again, about 70 in number today. Apparently, this flock has been hanging out by King's Lock a lot recent where it's a relatively short hop over the road to the Meadow. There were also good numbers of Canada Geese, at least 300 or so though I didn't count them. In amongst the plethora of ducks were three SHELDUCK and four GOOSANDER. There were literally thousands of Black-headed Gulls - they were everywhere you looked and reasonable numbers of larger gulls to though the best that I could do in the gloom, strong wind and greater distance was to pick out a single adult YELLOW-LEGGED GULL. Naturally so many birds in one place was going to attract some predators and a PEREGRINE whizzed through, causing mayhem and confusion as everything scattered.

The highlight of the visit though was when I spotted a flock of 80 or so BLACK-TAILED GODWITS, which had been put up by the falcon and which eventually settled again on the Spit. Unfortunately, it was so dark by this time that I wasn't able to take a photo at all but this is certainly the largest count of this species that we've had on the Meadow in my time birding it. I can recall flocks in their fifties but never this many, it may be a county record!

Flood levels are very much in the balance at the moment as to whether we tip over into full-blown Lake Mode or if we stay as we are. It's rather hard to bird once the floods get too big but just as they are now it's putting the Meadow on top form.

In the absence of any photos from today, here's a recent photo of a Kingfisher, taken at the Trap Grounds